High performance of Au/ZTC based catalysts for the selective oxidation of bio-derivative furfural to 2-furoic acid11 This paper in honor of Professor James G. Goodwin, Jr., in the occasion of his 75th birthday, to celebrate his outstanding contribution to catalysis sciences and technology.

Abstract

Furfural is a platform bio-molecule for which is valuable to develop new green upgrading processes in biorefinery. We report here for the first time the high performance of Au/ZTC catalyst for the selective oxidation of furfural to 2-furoic acid, as first step to develop electrodes. The ordered nanostructure and high surface area of BEA structure replica ZTC allows to develop 3D-type electrodes. Au/ZTC catalyst shows higher performance than commercial Vulcan, used as reference conductive carbon in fuel cells. The weak acidity on ZTC avoids decarboxylation and esterification reactions, leading to about 90% of furfural conversion fully selectivity to 2-furoic acid.

Keywords

• Zeolite template carbon replica
• Selective oxidation
• Furfural catalytic upgrading
• 2-furoic synthesis
• Biomass waste valorisation